Saturday, April 4, 2015

Blog #17

                                    Labor and Property
5.  Property Ownership in Modern Society:  Rights and Responsibilities


            St. Thomas Aquinas’ writings described the requirements of the common good of private property.  Additionally,  the Catholic teachings with Pope Paul VI identifying  how the wealthy owners of property in Latin America hurt the poor where some laborers left their plantation uncultivated for a period and some laborers were close to starvation.  However, by the 1960s, social conditions changed and popes have modified the teaching to reflect new challenges.  Pope John XXIII identifies the government efforts to exercise social responsibility called socialization. Pope John Paul II introduced limitation upon private property.  The fundamental nature of property ownership challenges have many assumptions about the relationship between people and goods and that people should not use property in ways that would harm the less fortunate.
           
6.  The Dignity of work, Rights of Workers, and Support for Labor Unions

            Leo XIII and John Paul II held the ideal of worker’s justice that  applied to the conditions that faced workers in the actual workplace and in the labor markets.  Some labor unions were associated with corruption, favoritism, and violent strikes.  Labor Unions drove up the cost of doing business and sacrificed the competitiveness of industries due to wage demands.  However, union-free workplaces were involved with deplorable working conditions and exploited workers.   The Catholic social teachings supported the labor unions. The Catholic social teachings identified that organized labor unions were part of obtaining justice so that workers would not be powerless to employers who can take advantage of them. However, the Catholic social teachings were aware of the problems that people faced in their jobs.  John Paul II, “Laborem Exercens,” emphasizes the “priority of labor over capital.”  Finally private property represents the wages that one had the right to earn and that individuals needed private property to served themselves and their family.


            I affirm that the private property guidelines had tried to maintain the respect and dignity of the people in the workplace historically.   I endorse all Popes that hold peace, the social well-being and development, and respect of the common good.  I affirm that work unites people in that social order still continues to struggle today due to controversial opposition.  Finally, I warrant that labor union today remains a method of social order in the workplace.

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